The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-12-27
FARMS AND FARMERS.
Short Talks With the Men Who
Guide The PIoW.
OF GENERAL INTEREST TO FARMERS
Will 1t PAY?

patriarchal father and motherly mother: these
naturally spring IN before the mental eve at
mention of the farm. Green fields, waving
corn, lowing herds, frisiing lambs, racing colts.
growing cocks and cackling geese complete
the picture. Ear from tho worlds icnoble
strife removed from many of the tempta-
tions that beset the lenizens of cities and
townsville farmer lives in close communion
with nature. The sunshine, the clouds, the
rain, the storm, cold and heat touch him on
every side and become part OF his daily life.
How to put himself in unison with nature
how to Cooperate with her; how to avoid op-
position to her laws, these are his constant aim
and study. They bring 10 personal anilnosi-
ties, no initiative antagonisms. To watch the
tiny seeding spring from the buried seed; to
see it expand and grow into tho lofty
corn with its yellow tasscls, flowing silks and
hanging ears, or. the branching cotton with its
snowy locks, suggestive of death and life, of
the grave and the resurrection this is the
pleasing, ennobling occupation Of each recur-
ring year of his life. In these he sees his own
life pictured: birth, growth, maturity, death.
No, not death; for in the now perfected grain
new life is hidden away, seeming death only
"a real Immortality. Is it wonderful that
noble natures, with the ripening and mellow
Ing OF age, turn instinctively to rural life, and
seek, or long fer, its quiet and freedom from
the chickering's and strifes of men and its fore
shadowings of heavenly rest?
But farming has also hard, business side
matter of dollars and cents, in the strictest
sense. In every venture, outside of the adorn-
ment of his home, or the comfort of his family,
the first question that prudent farmer should
ask himselfis :"Will it pay, is there any profit
In it?' Why should he labor 'for that which
Is naught," any more than a merchant or man
nfacturer or anybody else? "In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread" is
the divine announcement; he should
sweat, but he should have bread as the reward
thereof After taking due allowance for posi-
BILE contingencies, after careful, sober calcu-
lation, q farmer should have reasonable
grounds for believing that an undertaking will
pay before lie begins it. Like Judge en- the
BENCH he should canvass everything for or
against it, Neither blind hopes nor gloomy
fears should sway his judgment-these should
be ruled out of court, and he should look at the
naked facts in the light of the past experience.
Past experience--that is the touch stone, that
Is the safest counsellor. You need not fear to
follow it. The only point to be guarded is,
that You do not draw false influences from it,
and then substitute these in the place of the
experience Itself. Take the naked facts they
are right hard to get at sometimes; they be-
come mixed up with opinions and false deduc-
tons hut strip them of these as much as YOU
can and then be guided by past experience,
whether it is pleasant or not. Be honest,
whether it reflects on your past management
Or not.
Let US PROFOUND some questions which are
pertinent to the present season: Have you
good land to justify your running
rs many plows next year as you
did this? If you had left out a part
of the poorest land you planted this year and
put the manure and labor upon your best land,
would yen rot have made as much, or possibly
more. and saved the keeping of one mule and
one hand? Would it not be very pleasant to
have the money paid that hand back in your
pocket now, and the feed consumed by that
mule back i'll your BAN? Would it not have
been better to have sowed down that land, or
to have left it to rest and gather fertility to be
utilized at some future day? Does it pay you
to cultivate poor land? That is the most SER
tous, the most important question that con-
fronts tie southern farmer today. Think of
1t. Look at it, as applied to your own farm.
Count up the cost of cultivation, and then set
over against it the actual yields obtained. No
lodging. No showing over tie matter. Per-
haps one wet year you made fair crop On the
y
ares of four others, when the seasons were not
favorable? Far better to concentrate on the
best land on your farm, though by so doing,
you make it one-horse farm, than to run
eight plows on poor land and simply make
enough to pay the expense of cultivation, or
possibly not do even that
Does it pay to keep the same land year after
year in cotton, without rotation? Does it pay
to run rows up and down hill and let the soil
It? Does it pay TO raise cotton to buy corn and
3neat? Does it pay to buy mules and horses
when they can be raised at home? Does it
pay to use commercial fertilizers on thin land,
destitute of humus? Does il pay to cultivate
land that is half prepared? Does it pay to
use poor implements of any kind? Which
pays best, big venture on credit or q small
one OH a cash basis? These are a few only of
the many questions which a farmer may ask
himself He ought TO ask and weigh them
we'll answer them carefully, and then plan
his arrangements for another year. 1t is not
wise 10 90 forward as a matter Of course,
blindly taking the chances as they come. Look
before you leap. w. IL y.
JF.A A., Atlanta, Ga: ! have about forty tons of
cow dung not mixed with anything. 1 wish to
know what 10 mix with it, and in what proper
tions to increase quGn ty and improve quality.
shall uset principally on vegetables.
Cow dung has two marked characteristics
as compared with excrement of other animals:
list, its texture is close, and when in mass is
cheesy. End; as a consequence of above, and
from its deficiency in nitrogen, it putrefies
slowly, and dsintegrates poorly. To over
come these Objectionable features should be
the first object in manipulating it. This is
most readily and advantageously done by
mixing it with some highly nitrogenous, easily
fermenting substance, which. like leaven, may
leaven the whole mass. Cotton seed meal is
quite suitable, and rs it can be easily obtained,
and will supply the lacking nitrogen in the
dung, you can use nothing better. To make a
first-class article for vegetables, the meal and
dung should be mixed in rates of one of meal
to two sof dung by wcight-but three of dung
to one of meal would make a very excellent
fertilizer. Chop the dung as fine as can be
handily done. Mix it with the meal very
carefully, put in pens, moisten
every part, and tread down compactly
to keep the fermentation within
proper bound. Watch closely and if it gets
hot, quonch BY making numerous holes in the
mass and pouring in water without stint Do
fhis as often as it may need it, After the fer
mentation subsidies and the mass cools down,
cut down and work over and put back in pen
TO undergo a second fermentation. This is